The Browncoat Revolution
by The Pianist's Touch
Summary: Reavers are appearing in New York, Castle is having memories of things that never happened, the Alliance is showing up, Serenity's crew is missing, and Beckett, Ryan, and Esposito are very confused.
1. Chapter 1

The sharp, shrill tones of a cell phone cut through the air, rousing Castle from his sleep. He groaned, rolled over and looked at the clock: it was half past midnight. Rubbing his eyes, he threw the covers off of him and rolled out of bed, stumbling and tripping over some unidentified object in the dark.

"Dammit!" he hissed quietly, grabbing his foot and hopping around a bit as he tried to find his phone. Finally, he turned on the lights, found the phone lying innocently on the nightstand next to his bed, and answered it.

"Castle." he said, the sleep still evident in his voice.

On the other end of the line, Detective Beckett tried to hide the smile that had somehow crept onto her face. He sounded just like a little boy, up past his bed time. As much as she liked to complain about how his childish traits annoyed her, secretly, she found them a bit endearing.

"We have a case." Through the haze of grogginess that impeded his thoughts, Castle thought he could detect a hint of unease in Beckett's voice.

"Is everything alright?" he asked, concerned. Beckett wasn't the type to get worked up over a dead body, considering the nature of her work.

"Yeah, Castle, just-it's bad. And strange, very strange. Just..get down here." She gave him the address of an apartment building not too far from his own.

"On my way."

Castle stepped out of the elevator, smelling the ghastly scent of death as soon as he started walking down the hallway towards the victim's apartment. Castle could never mistake the smell of decaying bodies for anything else. It was like rotting garbage, or meat that had been left out of the fridge for too long, only much worse-because the victim was a person, not garbage, and not rotten meat. Taking a moment to compose himself, Castle took a sip of his coffee and wished that the smell of coffee beans was strong enough to overpower the tangy, metallic scent of blood that hung in the air. Normally, such a moment was unneeded, but there was an aura of fear that, like the smell of blood, hovered in the air like a thick fog. Suddenly, he was reminded of old cartoons where a grumpy character would be followed around by a rain cloud.

He ran into Ryan and Esposito in the doorway of the apartment. They were deep in conversation, their faces uncharacteristically grave.

"So...who's our vic?" Castle asked casually. He had thought about inserting a joke to alleviate the tension that filtered through the air, but thought better of it. He got the impression that this wasn't a case to make light of.

"Vic? You mean _vics. _There are _seven people_ dead in there, Castle," said Esposito as he moved out of the way, allowing Castle to enter the apartment. However, Castle didn't move, being too preoccupied with choking on his coffee.

"Seven? _Seven?!_ That's not a murder-that's a massacre!" Castle shouldered past the two detectives in an effort to see for himself. He just couldn't believe it. Seven people dead? That was insane!

"Castle, wait." Ryan stopped him with a hand on his shoulder, and Castle turned to face him, noting the look of disgust that came over his face.

"I feel like I should warn you, before you see for yourself," Ryan hesitated and took a deep breath. "The bodies are in a bad way. They've been torn apart. Part of the skin's been removed and..." Ryan lowered his voice to a whisper, "They've been cannibalized."

Castle ran his hand through his hair, eyes wide, feeling a bit sick. He looked at the two detectives and gave what was intended to be a grateful smile, but it came out more like a grimace. Then he entered the room.

The first thing he saw, as always, was Beckett. In any room, in any light, and in any situation, his eyes always seemed to be drawn to her before anything else. She was walking around the room, observing the crime scene with a frown, her brow furrowed. His eyes followed her gaze.

Then he saw the bodies.

Castle has seen many terrible things in the years he had worked with the NYPD. Bodies had been stuffed in freezers. Innocent people had been killed because their loved ones had involved themselves with the wrong people.

Children had been murdered.

But nothing compared to this.

A dark-haired young man, perhaps in his mid- to late-twenties, was sprawled over the couch, with half his face torn off, clothes in tatters. The man was covered in dozens of small wounds, and chunks of his flesh was missing. Another body-Castle thought it was a woman, but couldn't be sure-was hunched up near the man's, a chunk of her neck missing. Were those bite marks? Castle started to walk forward, but blanched when he spotted a child's finger on the floor.

He dropped the coffee, both his and Beckett's, and it was only thanks to the lids on the thermoses that the coffee didn't spill over the floor and contaminate the crime scene.

[1] "_Shun-SHENG duh gao-WAHN!"_ Castle muttered quietly under his breath. Thankfull_y, _nobody heard his random Chinese expletive. He had learned tidbits of the language long ago, from a TV show he used to love, but it still wasn't as though he threw Chinese words into his conversation or anything.

Beckett looked up at the sound of the thermoses hitting the ground.

"Castle! You're here!" she said, watching as he gathered up the coffee and then handed over hers with a brief, sheepish smile that faded quickly as he looked around the room. Beckett caught his expression. She sighed.

"I've seen a lot of horrible things as a police officer, but I think this tops them all. I mean God, Castle. They even killed the children!"

"It's just...so senseless. Who could do something like this?" he asked quietly.

"I think I can answer that question."

Castle and Beckett both jumped, not having heard Esposito come up behind them.

"Have you been in the bedroom yet?" he asked. Beckett shook her head.

"Hadn't gotten to it yet."

Esposito raised an eyebrow. "We found a man with a gun, and another riddled with holes. We think that the man who was shot may have been the murderer." Beckett and Castle gave each other a look, and then followed him into the bedroom of the apartment.

There were gasps all around as they entered the room.

There were two men in the room, and from the looks of things, it appeared that one man had shot the other, and then turned the gun on himself. The first man was wearing jeans and flannel-he had a sort of Southern look to him, aided by the shotgun held limply in his hands. The other was...monstrous. He had a wild look to him, like a caveman. His hair was long and untamed, matted and dirty. His skin was peeling off in some places, and it appeared that metal had been stabbed into his face somehow. He had been shot several times in the chest, presumably by the man with the shot gun. The sight of the wild man with the crazy hair, the unkempt clothes, and the skinless face was just unsettling.

"What _happened_ here?!"

That night, Castle dreamed of cannibals and spaceships.

"...Reavers," he whispered into the night, and suddenly wondered what he had gotten himself into.

**A/N: Please refrain from throwing rotten tomatoes! It's been years since I've written anything at all, and I've never written anything for Castle or Firefly. In fact, everything I've written in the past is something of an old shame-the only reason I haven't taken all my old stories down is because I know I hate when writers take stories down. I'm very rusty, I'm sure, so constructive criticism is welcome. In addition, if anybody would like to volunteer to beta this for me, I'd greatly appreciate it.**

**Please be kind, folks, but don't be afraid to tell me if it's awful and I've forgotten everything about writing a fan fiction. **

**[1] _Holy Testicle Tuesday! _**


	2. Chapter 2

"I just don't understand." Beckett said, raising her hands to rub her temples with long, elegant fingers as she observed the murder board. Idly, Castle wondered if she had been a musician once. Beckett was continually surprising him, and he supposed that it wasn't out of the realm of possibility.

Oblivious to the musings of the writer next to her, Beckett let out a sigh.

"So, I get how the Wrights and the Bennets were connected. On Tuesday, Jack Bennet, his wife Mary, and their twin sons Tom and Robert drove here from Oklahoma so that they could attend the wedding of Mary's brother, Samuel Wright."

"And the Bennets were big hunters, so that explains the shotgun." Castle added. Beckett nodded.

"After the wedding, the Bennets decided to stay with the Wrights for a few days until they left for their honeymoon, because they had never been to New York." Beckett continued, a look of consternation appearing upon her face.

"Yesterday, on Thursday, our mystery man somehow happens upon the two families, goes into some sort of frenzy, and attacks them. He kills the Wrights, and then kills Mary Bennet and her two children. Jack Bennet goes into the other room, gets his shotgun, and then kills the murderer before the murderer can kill him. When he realizes that his wife, children, and in-laws are dead, he kills himself. The only thing that can't be explained is the John Doe."

"You mean the wild cave man guy? Government experiment gone wrong. In Area 51, they built a time machine and accidentally brought back a caveman from prehistoric times. He obviously just went crazy because there weren't any dinosaurs around to play with, so he took it out on the nearest people." Castle interrupted eagerly. Beckett threw him a withering glare.

"Yes, Castle, that's _obviously_ it," she said, giving him a small smile to soften the sarcasm in her voice. "His prints aren't in the system, and none of the families of the victims recognize him. Basing on his clothes, his appearance, and the way he killed his victims, I would assume he had some mental illness and went psychotic, but none of the mental institutions have had anyone go missing. Nobody who works at any of the nearby homeless shelters has even seen him before. It's like the guy came out of nowhere."

Beckett threw her hands up in the air with an exasperated expression on her face. Honestly, Castle, your caveman theory makes about as much sense as everything else we've come up with."

"Well, we'll figure it out, you know? Whatever made this guy snap, whoever he was, why he killed all those people-we'll figure it out. After all, we've got the best detective in New York City working the case." said Castle. That earned him a small smile from Beckett, and he felt his own lips quirk upwards in response.

"And the hottest, too!"

_That_ earned him a slap on the arm.

"Beckett!" Ryan's voice cut across the precinct, the urgency in the Irish detective's voice making both of their heads snap up.

"What'd you find?" she asked sharply. Ryan only looked at her, and a sense of dread began to build up in her at the horror written all over his face.

"What did I find? Five more bodies, that's what I found! And same MO as before. Only difference? Of all the bodies we found, none were a wild caveman."

"So the killer's still alive." Castle said, the gravity of the situation just beginning to dawn on him as the conversation's earlier levity slipped away. "Could it be a copycat?"  
"We couldn't stop this one from being widely publicized, it was too sensational." Beckett said in reply.

"Yeah, but we didn't release to the press how they died, just how _many_ died." Castle shot back.

"So not a copycat. Maybe the original killer had a partner. I mean, he did kill seven people. How is it possible for one person to kill seven people with his bare hands? He must have had a partner, and the partner got away and now he's killing again." Beckett said, gesticulating wildly in the air with her hands.

Abruptly, Ryan stepped between them to get their attention. "While I hate to interrupt this back-and-forth you've got, there's something else you should know."

"What?" Castle and Beckett asked simultaneously. Beckett shot Castle an annoyed glance.

"Get this-this murder took place only _two blocks _away from the first one. It wasn't in an apartment either. It was on a city street, out where anyone could see, and it happened in broad daylight. There were tons of witnesses. I've already talked to a few of them, but Esposito's interrogating the rest right now."

"Witnesses? Well what did they see? What happened? Was there some sort an argument?" Castle asked quickly, the words tumbling out of his mouth, almost blending into each other in their eagerness to get out.

"No, no argument. The witnesses saw they saw a 'strange-looking man' in clothes that seemed to be made out of animal skins come barreling out of an alleyway. He immediately attacked the first person he came into contact with, a businessman on his way home from work, and...ate his face off, in some sort of mad frenzy. He then did the same with the people nearby, but by the time he was on the 5th person, the police had arrived, and were shooting at him. We believe one of them may have hit him in the leg, because he ran off and was limping really badly. However, he disappeared before any of the officers could make an arrest."

"So he's been wounded then?" Beckett asked, latching onto the salient information.

Ryan nodded."Thank God for small miracles. There was a blood trail that we tried following, but it was a bust-killer must've noticed he was bleeding and cleaned himself up."

"Good-that means he won't be able to attack anybody, not until that leg injury heals. So we have a little time to find him before he kills again." she said. Castle cleared his throat, and Ryan and Beckett both turned to look at him, Beckett raising her eyebrow and giving him a questioning look.

"Well see, what I'm wondering is...how did none of these people manage to defend themselves? We know the killer was alone this time, the witnesses would have seen if there was someone else. Right now, our working theory seems to be that two people had a psychotic break. Instead of attacking each other, they team up, go into some sort of mad frenzy, and kill two families in an apartment, where one of them is killed. The other lies low for a few days, and then out of nowhere decides to attack people again. Two people killing seven people with nothing but there bare hands, when one of the victims had a gun, is a stretch, to say the least. One person killing five on a busy street in broad daylight? It's insane!" said Castle.

He couldn't help but feel that there was something he was missing, something he was forgetting that would help with the case. It was obvious that these men were dangerous, but he had some sinking feeling that there was something more to this, and no matter what he may how he may have acted around the other members of the team, even thinking about the Reavers made him feel frightened and nervous-he kept getting the urge to glance over his shoulder, and his hand kept twitching towards his hip at every small sound, like he was trying to grab something. He supposed it was the victims that had gotten him so jumpy, rather than the murderer. One of them was a young woman, about 25 years old, with blue eyes and red hair. He couldn't help but notice the resemblance to his daughter, and the thought of something happening to Alexis always made him tense.

"...You've got a point, Castle." Beckett said slowly. "It doesn't make sense-none of this makes any sense at all. I mean, rabid cavemen that appear out of nowhere? Mass murder for no reason? I don't know what to tell you. Isn't it your job to come up with a story that makes all of this make sense?" Beckett asked with raised eyebrows.

Castle scrambled to think of something. "A story with _those_ details? It'd turn out way too crazy, even for me." he said with a laugh.

"Bro, if you can come up with a story that could make this case sound any crazier than it already is, I'll give you all the cash in my wallet."

They turned at the sound of Esposito's voice, noticing the man that followed to the left of and a few steps behind him. He appeared to be in his late 30s or early 40s, and was dressed in a stone gray suit, a white shirt and a light purple tie, his dirty blonde hair combed severely to one side. His eyes were cold and without warmth, and he had a stern, austere air to him. Castle instantly disliked him.

"The Reavers aren't actually crazy people. In reality, it was a government experiment gone wrong-"

The group collectively groaned. Government experiment gone wrong-what next, the CIA?

"-and all these people were infected with some sort of magical drug that makes you peaceful, except it went wrong and did the opposite. They went crazy and got really aggressive and formed colonies that move around in flying ships and attack people at random." Castle said with a smirk. The man in the gray suit started and gave Castle a calculating look. He didn't say anything though, and did nothing but patiently wait for the detectives to finish their conversation.

Esposito laughed and got out his wallet, handing over some cash.

"Twenty bucks? Really?" Castle said skeptically.

Esposito raised his hands defensively and said with a laugh and a glare, "We don't all carry hundreds of dollars around with us in our wallets!"

"Why did you call them Reavers?" the man in gray asked abruptly. The laughter stopped,and the smile slipped away from Castle face's like a rabbit down a hole.

"What?" he asked innocently. The name had just occurred to him, it seemed to fit right whenever he thought of the wild murderers. He often named many of his characters through sudden flashes of inspiration like the one he had a few nights ago, when he woke up with the word "Reavers" on his lips.

"Reavers, you called the murderers Reavers. Why'd you call them that?" the man in gray pressed on, getting some strange looks from the other detectives.

"It just popped into my head. Why does it matter? Who even are you, and what are you doing here?" Castle asked, his voice tinted with anger. Something about this man just put him on edge.

Beckett shot him a look that clearly said _what the hell?_ Esposito stepped in, however, before any more words could be said.

"This is Agent John Smith. He's a government guy, some sort of specialist in-what did you say you were specialist in?" Esposito asked, glancing to the man in gray. Agent Smith didn't say anything, and there was a short, awkward silence while the group waited for a reply that never came.

"Um, anyways," Esposito continued, "He's some sort of government specialist-looks like the feds finally sent someone down to help us out."

"About damn time, too." Ryan cut in. Agent Smith still didn't do anything but stand there, looking severe and terribly professional.

"I will be taking charge of this investigation." he said with an accent that impossible to place. It sounded like a fairly general Midwestern accent, but something about the way he pronounced certain words sounded...off, somehow. "I'll be keeping to myself, mostly. You conduct your investigation. I'll try and stay out of your way but I may make use of your facilities, and will require your cooperation."

Beckett's eyes flashed in anger. "Who the hell do you think you are? I am the leading detective on this case, _not you. _What branch of the government did you say you were from? I'm gonna need to see some identification."

Agent Smith rose to her challenge. "I didn't say, actually, not that it's of any concern to you. I have no need to answer to you, and who I am and what I do is nothing to worry your pretty little head over." Castle rose up at this, not liking the way he said the last few words, but his anger was quelled by a look from Beckett. "If you need assurances that I am who I say I am, you can talk to your Captain-Montgomery, was it? Now, I will be taking over from here on out. First, I'll be starting with a few interrogations...starting with you." he said, nodding at Castle.

"What?" he asked, shock coloring his tone and making his voice rise a bit.

"You're going to need to come with me."

**A/N: Well here it is, the second chapter. Love it, hate it? Think I've forgotten how to write? Tell me! It would be nice to have reviews, even if you do nothing but say "I read this chapter" or even "You suck". By the way, you can most likely expect updates about every Sunday evening or so. I'm a very, very busy person and I do lots of things, so most of my weekdays are taken up-and my Saturdays are often busy as well. However, it is not out of the realm of possibility that I would update sooner than that, if an idea strikes me.**


	3. Chapter 3

"Now hold on _just a moment._" Beckett said to Agent Smith, who had begun to take Castle by the arm and was indicating that he should follow him. Castle could tell Beckett was pissed, however, and stopped in his tracks, causing Agent Smith to glare at him, and then turn to Beckett.

"Yes? Is there a problem?" he said sharply, annoyance coloring his tone. It was obvious by the way he had spoken thus far that he was not a man who was accustomed to being questioned. Castle wondered if he maybe had been involved in the military at some point.

"You're damn right there's a problem!" she snapped. "You waltz in here, provide no identification, no explanation, take control of _my _ investigation, and then try and take _my _partner somewhere so he can be interrogated, God knows what you expect Castle to know that we don't, that you can't ask in front of us, right here." Her hand supporting her weight, she leaned down over her desk, getting up in his face as her words steadily grew louder and louder. Castle couldn't help but think it was kinda hot, the way she was defending him-Beckett was like a tiger when she was mad!

He quickly stopped that train of thought. Thoughts of Beckett and animal comparisons always ended up somewhere dirty. Then again, nowadays, most thoughts about Beckett ended up going somewhere dirty...

"Look, Mr. Super-Secret Agent Dude," Castle said, drawing snorts of laughter from Ryan and Esposito, who had been watching the scene from behind Beckett's desk with avid eyes, and a glare from Agent Smith, "It's not that I don't want to go with you-interrogations with somewhat creepy guys are fun!-but Beckett's right. I only know about as much as anyone else here." Castle said, hoping to mollify the situation and get out of an interrogation that would mostly take a long time and go nowhere, while simultaneously being remarkably unpleasant.

Agent Smith turned to him, a smug grin on his face. "Mr...Castle, was it?" Castle nodded tersely. "I'm afraid you'll find that you don't have much of a choice." Castle frowned, and felt his hand curl into a fist, an uncharacteristic itching in his hand urging him to punch the man. He wasn't normally a violent person, but something about this man put him on edge, as if by some visceral instinct-Castle thought it might be the smug look on his face. Castle hated people who were smug.

"Excuse me?" Beckett said, fire leaping into her eyes, and her mouth opened in preparation of letting that fire become scorching words. However, Agent Smith interrupted her before she could speak.

"Detective Beckett, I understand that you are upset that I am challenging your authority, and that I want to question one of your people. However, there is simply nothing I can do about it. My position, my reasons for being here, the organization I am part of...all are classified. You have now had 12 murders at the hands of these killers-the government has obviously decided to step in, as this has gone out of hand and, quite frankly, it appears that the NYPD has, so far, been rather inept about preventing more murders." he said glibly, the smug look never leaving his face. Beckett, Ryan, and Esposito stood watching him with shocked expressions-how dare he insult the NYPD to their faces!

Agent Smith surveyed their faces, and let loose an exaggerated sigh. "If you still require proof of my identity..." Trailing off, Agent Smith pulled out a cellphone and began dialing a number.

"I believe confirmation from the Governor of New York should suffice?" he asked, quirking his eyebrow and smirking _yet _again. Castle felt like ripping the eyebrows off the man, just so he couldn't quirk them. To Castle, there was nothing worse than people who thought they were better than you.

He handed the phone to Beckett, and Castle watched as her eyebrows shot up.

"Yes sir...Detective Kate Beckett...I'm sorry sir, but he wouldn't provide any identification...I-yes sir." She locked eyes with Ryan and Esposito.

"He's the real deal, guys. The governor vouched for him." She said.

"Friends in high places, huh? Just like our man Castle here," said Esposito. "Sorry for giving you a hard time."

All he got from Agent Smith was a glare that said _you better be sorry. _

"Ah, yes, that brings me back to Mr...Castle, yes? I do have reason to believe that he may have information that is pertinent to this case, and _you_ have no reason to keep me from questioning him." Agent Smith stared down his nose at the three detectives, keeping a firm grip on Castle's arm, and waited for one of them to say something.

"Now, if you'll please excuse me-"

"Wait!" Ryan interrupted. As all eyes turned towards him, he looked decidedly more nervous. "Why don't you just use one of our interrogation rooms? There's no reason to take him...wherever."

"Yeah!" Esposito agreed, seeming to like the idea. "There's nothing you can do to him or say to him that you can't do and say right here."

"They're right you know." Beckett said to Agent Smith with perhaps a touch of condescension in her tone, glad at having regained the upper hand. Agent Smith's face, however, had gone from smug to furious, and from furious to politically neutral in all of a few seconds.

"I see no reason that he should be removed from the premises. This is a precinct, you said that you would be working with the NYPD-use one of our interrogation rooms-but you better know that we'll be watching from behind a two-way glass."

Agent Smith's darkened-until it didn't. Castle had a sinking feeling as he watched the smug grin return to those cold, austere features.

"...Of course, Officer," he acquiesced. Beckett lead the way into the interrogation room, and Castle fell in step behind them, feeling nervous. He had one of _those feelings_, like the kind where you think you may have left the stove on at home, and the house is about to burn down. Deep down in his bones, he knew: something was going to happen.

"I'll be waiting outside." Beckett said to Agent Smith, with a hint of warning in her voice. Her eyes were mistrustful-it was clear to Castle that she didn't like Smith much more more than he did-but she did nothing but open the door and move aside.

Castle and Agent Smith walked into the interrogation room, and the door shut behind them. Castle pulled up a chair at the interrogation table while Agent Smith hesitated at the door for a moment, turning around to face it-perhaps he was having trouble getting it to close all the way?-and then joined him. The interrogation had begun.

-BREAK-

"You know, I might as well be honest with you here," said Agent Smith. "You're not going to remember this conversation when it's over. Nobody will. There are people listening to this conversation-but don't think that means you can't tell me things you wouldn't say in front of them."

At those words, Castle thought he could hear a small commotion from behind the two-way mirror, but it stopped shortly after.

Castle blinked, making his confusion visibly apparent.

"And what is _that_ supposed to mean? Oh, I know! Is this like one of those alien abductions, where I'm kidnapped for a short time and then nobody remembers it afterward?" Castle joked. His eyes got shifty. "You're not going to experiment on me, are you? I should have known you were an alien-everyone knows 'John Smith' is a fake name!"

Agent Smith didn't laugh, and instead, his eyes narrowed. He didn't seem to be accustomed to people taking things lightly, and didn't seem to appreciate it either.

"Who told you about the Reavers and Miranda?" he snapped quickly, an accusatory tone in his voice. Apparently, Agent Smith was not one to beat around the bush.

"First of all, I told you, I came up with the name 'Reavers' myself-I'm a writer, I come up with names for things! Second, I don't even know anybody named Miranda. I don't even know what you're talking about!" Castle shouted defensively.

Agent Smith steepled his fingers, smilingly condescendingly, looking for all the world like an exasperated parent about to explain something obvious to a stupid child.

"Come now, Mr. Castle...I already told you that there is no need to play dumb with me. Your friends won't remember this conversation after we leave. There is nobody around to threaten you. Your story about the failed government experiment that caused some people to become unnaturally aggressive, and then killed the rest of the population? I think we both know that was no story. What I want to know is...how can somebody from 2012 know something that isn't made public knowledge for another 500 years.

Castle sputtered. "500 years...in the future? That's not possible-is this some kind of trick? A code or something? Because if it is, I don't know it! I honestly don't know anything more than anyone else here."

Agent Smith sighed. "Mr. Castle...you are a writer, yes? Surely, you can imagine...it is 500 years in the future. Many planets have been colonized, and we know quite a bit more about space and time then those of you in 2012. For example, we know that there are holes in the space-time continuum, called black holes, and with the right ship, and in the right conditions...you can go anywhere...or any _time_. I would explain it to you, but I don't think your simplistic little prehistoric brain could handle it. The government works differently in the future-we are not as careless with our secrets and knowledge as the government now. Even so, such secrets have a way of getting out, and sometimes people slip through the cracks. Outlaws _have_ been known to go to such extremes to hide from the law. Something you said has led me to believe that you may know one of these outlaws...or you may be one yourself."

Once again, Castle thought he heard raised voices outside the interrogation room. This time, however, Agent Smith seemed to hear them too, because his head shot up. However, instead of looking towards the two way mirror, Agent Smith looked Castle in the eye.

"Oh, don't mind them," he said. "I'm sure they think I'm crazy. It doesn't matter. They won't interrupt."

Castle was suspicious of how confident Agent Smith sounded. After all, surely, if the detectives thought the agent was just wasting their time by speaking nonsense, they would interrupt?

Suddenly, however, he was distracted when Agent Smith leaned over and plucked a few hairs from his head.

"Hey! What'd you do that for?" he started to whine, but then stopped when he saw Agent Smith pull out a strange looking, metallic object. Agent Smith deposited the hairs onto one end of the device, which glowed blue, and then dimmed. Then, a holographic screen seemed to pop up, almost like some sort of computer.

"NAME: MALCOLM REYNOLDS." A computerized voice drifted up, and to Castle's surprise, it seemed to be coming from the machine. "GENDER: MALE. DOB: SEPTEMBER 20, 2486. SOCIAL CONTROL NUMBER: 099,836,5,4112."

Once again, Castle felt himself blinking in confusion. What was this guy trying to prove? None of that was even right-not even his name!

However, Agent Smith's lips curled upward in a smile of victory.

"Ah...so you are not a native of this time after all, are you Mr. Reynolds? When I heard you speak of what happened on Miranda, I knew that you must have been from 2518...how else would you have known that?"

Castle crossed his arms and glared at the man across the table. Castle wasn't normally the type to glare silently, but he felt that it was the only way to get his point across. The man was being stubborn, and Castle hated that Agent Smith was trying to trick him somehow by pretending that he was from the future-if he wasn't just plain crazy. Why would he pull him into a room for an interrogation, only to screw with his head? It made his blood boil to think that the purple-bellied scum in front of him was trying to play him for a fool.

"Speechless, huh? Well let's learn a little more about you then, shall we?" He pressed a button, and the computerized voice once more started speaking from the hologram device.

"SON OF A RANCHER, BORN ON THE PLANET SHADOW. BOUND BY LAW FIVE TIMES: SMUGGLING, TARIFF DODGING, TRANSPORTING ILLEGAL CARGO; NO CONVICTIONS. SEARGENT AND BREVET CAPTAIN, INDEPENDENT ARMY, 57TH BRIGADE. VOLUNTEER. AWARDED VALOR COMMENDATION: BATTLE OF SERENITY VALLEY. MISSING SINCE OCTOBER 17, 2517."

The voice stopped.

"Missing, huh?" whispered Agent Smith as a greedy grin crept over his face. "Well, it looks like we found you...I know your type-you're an outlaw, I'm sure. I bet there's a bounty on your head..."

Castle didn't like where this was going. In fact, he hadn't liked any of this conversation.

"Look, I'm not from the future, I'm 41, not 32, my name is _not _Malcolm Reynolds, and I've certainly never fought in no gorram war," said Castle, angrily. He was frustrated by the fact that this man kept asserting things that were simply not true. He remembered growing up as a kid, and he was pretty sure he would have noticed the flying cars, spaceships and aliens of the future.

There was a pause.

"Gorram?" Agent Smith said softly with a lifted eyebrow. Castle opened his mouth, normally ready with a witty rejoinder, but closed it, flabbergasted and speechless. He didn't know what to say. "Gorram" wasn't even a word! "No gorram war"? Castle was an author! He prided himself on his excellent grammar-but after that uncharacteristic butchering of a sentence, Castle felt like hanging up his writer's cap.

"Mr. Reynolds, there's a reason I said that those detectives who are listening so intently to this situation outside will not remember our conversation...there are ways of making someone forget something. Just as there are ways of making people remember."

There was another brief silent while he let those words hang in the air between them. Eventually, Castle pushed his chair back and stood up, ready to escape from one of the craziest conversations he'd had in a _long_ time.

"Now, if you'll excuse me, if not under arrest, I think I'd like to leave now." He inclined his head slightly in a gesture of politeness, and then turned towards the door.

"Oh, I don't think you'll want to be doing that." Agent Smith said, and Castle nearly cursed to hear that _damn _cocky voice again. No man had a right to be so smug, cocky, and condescending all the time.

"And why is that?" Castle asked, turning his head around so he could look Agent Smith full in the eye.

"Because I know who you are now...I knew the name "Malcolm Reynolds" sounded familiar-you're the captain of Serenity! Mr. Reynolds, you're not leaving because you _are _under arrest-for high treason against the Alliance."

**A/N: I'm sorry I'm late, guys-life got busy, and I got lazy. Once again, I would greatly appreciate reviews, if only to let me know that people are reading this. I'm asking for constructive criticism-I know I'm out of practice and still need to get in the swing of writing again, so I would appreciate any tips you could give me. And, as mentioned previously, I would love it if someone would be willing to beta this story. **

**Thanks for reading!**

**~J**


	4. Chapter 4

"I'll be waiting outside," Beckett said to the strange man who had burst into the precinct, rudely taken control of her investigation, and then demanded to interrogate her partner for no visible reason. She didn't like him, and she certainly didn't trust him. Agent Smith gave a brisk nod, and ushered Castle into the interrogation room, closing the door behind them.

Beckett, Esposito, and Ryan all rushed over to the two-way mirror to watch.

"Pretty weird, huh?" Ryan commented idly as they watched the Castle and Agent Smith take their seats in the interrogation room. Beckett shot him a sideways glance.

"This case, I mean. Crazy, mass-murdering cannibals is one thing, but now we've got this weird-ass agent guy, who won't even tell us what part of the government he works for coming in, pulling strings to take over the investigation, and now he's interrogating Castle and he won't even tell us why?" Ryan said as he took a seat.

"I don't know man," Esposito said with a shrug, choosing to sit on top of the table by the two-way mirror, rather than in a chair. "There was that one case with the vampires."

"Yeah, but the vampires were fake, remember? These cannibals? Not so fake." said Beckett. She didn't sit at all, and instead faced the interrogation room with arms crossed, an almost nervous air to her. She didn't have a good feeling about this.

"Yeah, plus, there was no creepy government guy." Ryan started to say, until he was interrupted by the aforementioned creepy government guy on the other side of the mirror.

"You know, I might as well be honest with you here," They heard Agent Smith say to Castle, and stopped talking so they could listen. "You're not going to remember this conversation when it's over. Nobody will. There are people listening to this conversation-but don't think that means you can't tell me things you wouldn't say in front of them."

The three detectives shared a look.

"What the hell is he talking about?" Esposito asked, rather bluntly. He hadn't heard of any way of making someone forget something, besides amnesia-and he didn't really think that the agent was going to go around hitting them all on the head until they forgot what he was saying.

"Hell if I know," said Beckett. "Is that why he let us listen in on this conversation? Because he thinks we'll forget it, somehow?"

Inside the interrogation room, Castle seemed to be just as confused as they were. However, unlike the detectives, he took it as a joke, and started spinning some wild yarn about how the agent was an alien who'd kidnapped him.

Agent Smith wasn't laughing, and snapped off a question, asking Castle who told him about the Reavers and somebody named Miranda.

"Wait, I thought Castle made up the name 'Reavers'?" Esposito asked, the confusion written all over his face equally evident in his voice. Beckett gave a confused shrug.

"As far as I know, he did...and I don't recall anybody mentioning someone called Miranda." she said, running her fingers through her hair-it was her habit to do this sometimes when she was confused or frustrated .

"I don't either...could she have been one of the victims, maybe? I know one of them was a girl who's name started with an 'M'...it could have been Miranda." Ryan offered up, without an ounce of confidence in his voice. Even he didn't think they were talking about a victim, but none of them could figure out how this "Miranda" fit into the picture.

Castle quite understandably denied having any knowledge of the Reavers or of Miranda, and was just as weirded out as the detectives listening in when Agent Smith claimed that the only people who could know about "Miranda" were 500 years in the future...and included himself and Castle in that group.

"Mr. Castle...you are a writer, yes?" Agent Smith started to say, with the most annoying tone of condescension in his voice. Beckett didn't understand how Castle could stand to be in the room with somebody that smug, especially someone who was obviously trying to con him somehow.

"Surely, you can imagine...it is 500 years in the future. Many planets have been colonized, and we know quite a bit more about space and time then those of you in 2012. For example, we know that there are holes in the space-time continuum, called black holes, and with the right ship, and in the right conditions...you can go anywhere...or any _time_. I would explain it to you, but I don't think your simplistic little prehistoric brain could handle it. The government works differently in the future-we are not as careless with our secrets and knowledge as the government now. Even so, such secrets have a way of getting out, and sometimes people slip through the cracks. Outlaws _have_ been known to go to such extremes to hide from the law. Something you said has led me to believe that you may know one of these outlaws...or you may be one yourself."

There was a pause while Ryan, Beckett and Esposito all looked at each other, and then at Castle, and then back at each other. Beckett almost felt the urge to start laughing-because surely this was a joke-but the Agent's crazy story was delivered in such a grave tone of voice that it felt impossible not to take him somewhat seriously.

"Is he _nuts_?"

"What the actual _fuck_ is he talking about?" Beckett heard Esposito and Ryan say at the same time.

"I don't know, but this crazy son of a bitch has had enough time to talk to Castle. I don't know what he's going on about, but he's obviously just messing with us. We have 12 people dead already from these cannibals-from these 'Reavers' as he calls them. We don't exactly have time for this guy to waste our time, even if the governor vouched for him. I'm going in there and putting a stop to this." Beckett said with determination in her voice.

She reached for the door, but found that it wouldn't open. She jiggled the handle several times, and even leaned her weight against the door, but it remained shut.

"There's not even a lock on this!" She yelled with frustration as she kicked the door several times, causing several of the other police officers in the precinct who hadn't been listening in on Castle's interrogation to look at her like she was crazy. She ignored them.

"Let me take a look at that." Ryan offered, wanting to make sure that the door was actually locked and not just jammed on something. He walked up to the door, checked it's hinges, ran his hands around the frame of the door, but couldn't find anything blocking it. He and Esposito both took turns trying to get the door open.

"Eh, screw this!" Esposito half shouted, throwing his hands up in exasperation. "There must be _something_ blocking the door, but I don't see anything. We might as well go back to listening to Castle and Smith."

"I guess so...they're just talking, after all, even if I don't like it. Fine." she said in acquiescence, and they returned to their respective spots; Ryan in the chair, Espo on the table, and Beckett standing with crossed arms and a glare. They looked back into the interrogation room, and the situation had changed.

Castle sat, uncharacteristically still and quiet, his arms crossed and his eyes shooting daggers at Agent Smith. If looks could kill, Agent Smith would surely be dead by now.

"Man, Castle looks _pissed_! I wonder what we missed." said Ryan. Everyone ignored him, distracted by the strange, metallic looking object Agent Smith held in his hand. One end of it was glowing blue, and it almost looked...well, like they would expect something from the future to look like: strange, shiny, and sinister. Suddenly, a voice came out of it. It was computerized and a bit broken up-it sounded like the SIRI technology that some of the newest iPhones had.*

"SON OF A RANCHER, BORN ON THE PLANET SHADOW. BOUND BY LAW FIVE TIMES: SMUGGLING, TARIFF DODGING, TRANSPORTING ILLEGAL CARGO; NO CONVICTIONS. SEARGENT AND BREVET CAPTAIN, INDEPENDENT ARMY, 57TH BRIGADE. VOLUNTEER. AWARDED VALOR COMMENDATION: BATTLE OF SERENITY VALLEY. MISSING SINCE OCTOBER 17, 2517."

"This must be what going mad feels like." said Beckett, lifting her hands to rub at her eyelids a bit, hoping that when she opened them, everything would make sense again.

She opened her eyes.

Things still didn't make sense. The boys looked at her in silence, waiting for her to add further input into the situation, to say something to explain what they had just heard. They were just as confused as she was.

"I've _seen_ Castle's police record. He hasn't been 'bound by law' five times...only once, something about stealing a police horse while naked." she said, more to herself than to anyone else.

Esposito and Ryan started to laugh, but stopped when they saw she was going to speak again.

"He's certainly not the son of a rancher...I mean, he doesn't know his father, so I guess he _could _be...but Castle's a city boy. And I've never even heard of the "Independent Army" or "Serenity Valley". And he's obviously not missing. I just don't understand why the agent would say all these things when Castle obviously doesn't know what he's talking about." Beckett said, resting her chin on her hand as a contemplative look crossed her face.

"Maybe this is some kind of code? Maybe Castle's supposed to react to something he's saying?" she hypothesized, somewhat half-heartedly. That didn't even make sense to her-if the agent was fishing for some reaction from Castle, he'd gotten it-confusion. If a reaction was what he was looking for, then he was wasting his time, and Agent Smith didn't strike her as the type of man to do things without a reason. She just couldn't understand what his reason for this was.

"Look, I'm not from the future!" The sound of Castle yelling caught their attention-he was obviously distressed. "I'm 41, not 32, my name is _not _Malcolm Reynolds," they heard him say, "and I've certainly never fought in no _gorram_ war." Somehow, he had gone from sitting to standing, and his chest was heaving a bit from the force of his shouting.

His tone of voice had changed-it had become a bit slower, and a bit more plain. His voice sounded more Western than Northeastern, but certainly not like any Western accent she was familiar with-not exactly, anyways. It was almost more like an amalgamation of many different accents, or an accent that had changed somewhat over time. He stood straight, an aggressive tone in his normally friendly voice. And since when did Castle, who was an author after all, not use good grammar?

He looked like a different man, and Agent Smith seemed to notice as well, and softly called him out on his poor grammar and use of the nonsense word "gorramn".

Then, things changed, and Ryan, Esposito, and Beckett heard yet another absurdity, to add to the list of crazy and absurd things Agent Smith had said-which included pretty much everything that had been spoken thus far.

"I knew the name "Malcolm Reynolds" sounded familiar-you're the captain of Serenity! Mr. Reynolds, you're not leaving because you _are _under arrest-for high treason against the Alliance."

-BREAK-

Castle was startled. He'd spent this entire interrogation completely confused by the nonsense being thrown out by Agent Smith-all the while trying to ignore the quiet voice in the back of his head that whispered, "_This is who you really are". _ But that name...

"_Serenity..._" Castle whispered to himself. Something about that word just felt..like home. Like something was missing, as though there was some hole in his heart that he hadn't even known existed until then. In his mind's eye, he remembered the space ship he had seen in his dream, the night after they first discovered the Reavers.

But then the latter half of that statement was processed in his brain, and he forgot about the ship and focused on his imminent arrest for some unnamed treasonous act that he didn't even remember committing.

"Treason? Look...it's not that this hasn't been an...interesting...interrogation, but really, is that the best thing you can think of to keep me here? This is kinda getting ridiculous." He said placatingly, trying to surreptitiously inch towards the door.

"Oh no, Captain Reynolds, I'm very serious. You're letting these Reavers into the past, and the Alliance certainly couldn't allow that. It's not exactly easy to get through a black hole-it takes some very complicated technology and a very good mechanic working on the gravity drive to prevent the ship from being ripped apart by the gravity of a black hole. The Reavers don't have that kind of technology- _diyu_, they operate without core containment. They're barely able to keep their ships running. And there's certainly no way they would have the kind of stealth to fly a ship through New York without being noticed-or even any particular reason to be stealthy. Oh, no. Somebody had to let them in-somebody on the inside."

Castle absorbed that bit of knowledge without commenting. Somebody had let the Reavers in from the inside? He knew it wasn't him...but who did that leave? And why would they let Reavers in, when they were known to murder people...unless that was the point?

"It wasn't me, I swear!" Castle squeaked, taking a step backwards, his hands raised in a vague defensive gesture. "I _like_ New York! I live here too, you know! Why would I invite some murderers into my city?" He asked, trying to make the agent see reason. Everything Agent Smith had said sounded absolutely insane-and yet, Castle wasn't really getting crazy vibes off of him. Castle wasn't sure what made him more nervous-that Agent Smith could be a crazy guy who was mad at him for committing some alleged crime, or that Agent Smith actually was a government agent from a future-past?- that he had forgotten all about.

"Well, Captain Reynolds," Agent Smith said, walking in a circle back around to the chair in the center of the room, his eyes following his hands as his fingers gently brushed over the interrogation room's table. "There could be a number of reasons. Here's my theory-"

Castle interrupted him. "_Don't call me that._" He said tersely, arms crossed, a fire leaping into his eyes as he delivered the words in a scorching tone. He was confused, and angry, but by far, the thing that bothered him most was that this agent guy had just waltzed into his life and was trying to convince him that he was someone he wasn't. He was born and raised in New York; he didn't have any military members in his family, and he couldn't remember the difference between a hoe and a plow. And yet, this guy was trying to convince him that he was an ex-soldier, a smuggler, and a rancher? It just didn't sit right with him.

"I'm sorry, Captain...don't call you what?" Agent Smith asked innocently, but that smug tone in his voice was anything but. He knew exactly what was bothering Castle, but felt no desire to stop.

"My _name,_" Castle drew out through clenched teeth, "is _Castle. Richard. Edgar. Castle. _ Not Malcolm. I don't even know anybody named Malcolm." he said fervently, ignoring the sinking feeling in his guts and the way his words traitorously sounded more like a lie than a denial. To himself, Castle couldn't deny that the name "Malcolm Reynolds" had a familiar ring to it.

"Oh no, Captain _Reynolds_," Agent Smith said with a mocking smile that didn't reach his eyes. "The data says that you are Malcolm Reynolds, Captain of Serenity...and the data never lies." Castle clenched his hands into fists angrily, affronted that this man refused to call him by his real name. "And speaking of the data..." Agent Smith trailed off.

"You fought for the Browncoats, on the losing side of a terrible war. You were from Shadow, yes?" He questioned.

"Yes. I mean no! I'm from New York." Castle said quickly, not sure why he had allowed the fallacious "yes" to slip out. Agent Smith didn't seem impressed and didn't seem to believe him, but then the world seemed to grow more quiet, and Castle grew quiet himself in response to the suddenly gravity in the atmosphere.

"I'm sorry for what they did to you. I'm sorry for what _we _did." he whispered, and here, the agent truly did seem to be sorry, as though he were trying to absolve himself of something -of what, Castle didn't know, but it was the first time throughout the entire interrogation that Agent Smith had actually felt somewhat human.

"_Not as sorry as I am." _

Castle spoke the words so quietly, he almost wasn't sure he'd said them at all. He wasn't exactly sure what he was sorry _for-_ but he knew he was sorry for something. The word "Shadow" seemed to bring a great deal of grief to him, and he closed his eyes for a moment, and let it overwhelm him, before letting out a deep sigh that rattled in his chest.

There was a silence as the two men contemplated each other, until it was finally broken by Agent Smith.

"Yes...you'd be very sorry indeed. A man like you would have every reason to hate the Alliance. After all, even if you may not remember it, it was you and your crew that sent out the Miranda broadwave. Oh, we made your lives _miserable_ afterward." He said softly, speaking the last words with relish, as if he had fond memories of the alleged misery he had caused.

"I remember that time-the crew of Serenity was all anyone could talk about. From what I hear, you were arrested several times, and weren't always given...the best of treatment. Nobody would hire you-hell, from what the rumors say, almost all of your contacts were killed by one of our men, just before the broadwave was sent out. Oh yes, I can understand you wanting to leave and escape to the past...and I bet you never stopped hating the Alliance." Castle wanted to protest at this point, but wisely decided to keep silent. He still didn't completely understand what was going on-he didn't even completely understand what the Alliance was, although from the context, he figured that it must be some government faction. "People on Earth-That-Was live like people on the Core-I'm sure you've noticed that," Agent Smith continued, oblivious to Castle's wandering attention. "It must have killed you, being surrounded by reminders of the war you lost, trapped in the past, unable to join the uprising. It's not such a huge leap, from killing Alliance to killing people who remind you of the Alliance. All this time, I bet you've been biding your time to get revenge for Serenity Valley and the Unification War, and here was your chance to aid the uprising by causing a distraction during what may be the beginning stages of a revolution-with the sacrifice of a few lives, of course. Oh yes, Captain Reynolds-you're very sorry indeed, and sorry men are desperate men, and I bet you'd be desperate enough to kill."

Castle blinked, trying to purposefully make his confusion apparent. "You seem to be forgetting something" he stated, grateful to finally get the chance to have the upper hand in the conversation. He even dared to quirk an eyebrow in mockery of the "future" government agent.

Agent Smith paused, caught off guard; clearly, that was not the response he had been expecting. "Am I? And what might that be?" Smith asked, a little too casually.

"You are-_I have no idea what you are talking about. _You can't even arrest me anyways-that's the most circumstantial thing I've ever heard. You _think_ I _might_ be from the "future", and that I _might _ be part of some revolution that I've never even heard and that I'm killing people in the "past" in retribution for some war and battle I was supposedly part of, when I've never been a soldier of any kind. You can't arrest anybody for that. I'd like to leave, please." Agent Smith was really starting to freak Castle out by this point. He couldn't deny that the thought of him in time traveling and taking place in some space-war against a tyrannical government was kind of awesome; however, getting arrested was not awesome, especially when it was by someone who was crazy.

Agent Smith opened his mouth to speak, then closed it, and seemed to consider what Castle had said.

"You _are _from the 26th century, even if you don't remember it. However, it is obvious to me that I'm beating a dead horse, at this point-you'll never admit that you're not from this time period. This interrogation has been...enlightening, to say the least. However, Mr. Reynolds, this isn't the last you'll be seeing of me." He then walked over to the door, fiddled with it a bit, and then opened it and left the room, Castle following close behind.

"Agent Smith, what _the hell_ was that?! You're actually going to suggest that Castle is some revolutionary from the future? I don't think so-you better explain why you've been wasting our time." Beckett said, glad to finally be able to talk to the man. That was, hands down, the strangest interrogation she had ever watched, and she wanted answers.

"Ah, I knew I'd forgotten something." Agent Smith mumbled to himself as he searched through the pockets of his gray suit. He then pulled out a small object. It was about the same shape of an egg, except it was purple instead of brown or white, and had a glassy quality to it.

"What's tha-" Agent Smith threw the egg-thing down onto the ground before Beckett could finish her question, and the glass shattered all over the precinct's floor. Quickly, he pulled a white handkerchief out of the front pocket of his suit and pressed it to his face, covering his mouth and nose. As he did this, a strange, smoky substance began to rise from the egg.

Somebody shrieked, and the smoke seemed to pour out of the egg, thicker and faster every second. Beckett, Ryan, Castle, and Esposito all tried to hold their breath, but slowly, each inhaled the smoke and one by one, everyone in the precinct fell asleep.

In all the chaos, nobody noticed Agent Smith quietly slip out the door.

**A/N: I'm sorry I'm so late everyone! I've had a deadline come up recently where I had to make one of those big, life-changing decisions and, quite frankly, writing was the furthest thing from my mind. Here's the good news though: In the next chapter, Castle should start getting his memory back, River shows up, and hopefully, I'll begin to answer some of the questions raised in the last few chapters. Remember, I'm looking for a beta so if anyone wants to volunteer, I'd really appreciate it!**

**Thanks for reading!**

**~J**


	5. Author's Note

**Author's Note:**

**Hey guys, sorry to disappoint y'all, but this isn't a chapter, its an announcement: this story is going on hiatus. I don't intend to abandon it, but I tend to write in brief spurts and bursts-regular chapter updating isn't as much my thing, I'm more the type to wait a month and release four or so chapters at once. I actually do have a good amount of the next chapter written, but I don't know when I'll have time to finish it. But this summer's going to be so busy-that sounds like a crap excuse, but there really are only going to be a couple days each month where I'm not going to be doing something. Except that doesn't go away when school begins, so it could be quite a while until the next time I update. It really depends. Sorry.**

**~Jay**


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